Bobby Unser at Phoenix with the new car. Since the
Olsonite graphics were not ready, this car was completely hand painted,
following the basic design. All subsequent body panels used actual paint and color masking
for the eagle decor, but all lettering was accomplished with stick-on
printed film. At the Phoenix 200, Bobby took no prisoners, qualified on the
pole and won the race running away. The car set pole at Indy with an
astounding 195 MPH speed, a full 18 MPH faster than the pole speed of the
previous year. Bobby easily led the race until the distributor rotor broke,
the car coasting to a halt while nearly a full lap ahead of the field.

Above left, Philippe, helmeted with whatever was in the
shop at the time, sits in the newly completed car in early 1972 for pictures
after the initial testing. This took place at Ontario Motor Speedway where the car, driven by Unser, easily lapped at 191 MPH, a huge speed at the time, well above the
178 MPH
record.
Part of the temporary paint next to one of the eagles heads had peeled off
during the testing!

Many years later in 1989, Dan Gurney allowed Philippe to restore two
1972 Eagles
based on unused spare tubs that remained at the All American Racers shops, to be refinished as the 1972
machines driven by Bobby Unser and Jerry Grant. All the other parts were new
and used spares and used engines that came from Bobby and Jerry's 1972 cars.
The first car was completed in
2008 and is now in Dan Gurney's personal museum in Santa Ana.
Driven by Grant, the 1972 Eagle was the first Indy car to circulate on a closed
course at over 200 MPH, and the car used by Jerry at Ontario Motor Speedway to
set this record was painted in a purple metallic color with Olsonite sponsorship. The car had earlier in
the year, been
leading the 1972 Indy 500 when with 12 laps to go, it encountered a puncture in
its right-side front tire.
In
the ensuing rushed pit stop, the car was unnecessarily short-filled from the Bobby Unser fuel supply,
a huge mistake that
caused a penalty of the 11 laps covered after the stop, pushing the car back to a 12th place finish, a great disappointment for the AAR crew.

The "Mystery
Eagle" as it was known, after its assembly. Every effort
was made to ensure that the completed car would be as close to the original as possible, while making
it fully operational for
demonstrations,

Jerry Grant
and crew after setting the first 200mph lap at Ontario Motor Speedway in
October 1972. This was an extraordinary accomplishment and the result of a
year of hard work on the best Indy car money could buy.

Tracing the
engine numbers (crankcase and cylinder block/head assembly) from old records
he saved from the bin, Philippe found that the engine in the completed car
had been used at the 1972 "Milwaukee 150" race in the very car driven by
Jerry Grant that day. While Bobby Unser easily won the race, a turbocharger
failed on Jerry's car.

The Weisman 4-speed Indy car transmission was built by
Pete Weisman in his Costa Mesa shop. Pete later built 7-speed gearboxes for
the McLaren Formula One team and

was
instrumental in developing the first semi-automatic transmission for
modern racing automobiles.
The picture on the left shows one of the two Drake-Offenhauser engines at
Stewart Van Dyne's shop in Huntington Beach.
All American Racers had
developed changes on the engines that were exclusive to them, such as better
internal lubrication through a twin pump setup, requiring different pickup
points on front of the engine. The 4-cylinder, twin-cam "dinosaur", derived
from the 1912 Peugeot engine, develops up to 1100HP on 120 inches of boost
from its Garrett turbocharger.
This caused a slow response time, as the driver had to wait about 3 seconds
for the turbo to spool and deliver full torque after application, and wait
another 3 seconds after lifting for the power delivery to stop, a very
unsettling way of driving a racing car. While this was improved in various
ways over time, it is what 1972 Indy car drivers had to put up with, and
put up they did.

The two tubs at Philippe's shop in 1989, in the
process of analysis of what would be required to assemble the cars.
Much and expensive research lasted several years.
After the project dragged for years from shop to shop and with lots of
optimism and wishful thinking, the two cars were finally assembled and made
to run. Stewart Van Dyne, who now owns the tooling and rights to the Drake-Offy
engines, repaired and assembled the special AAR "twin-pump" engines,
while others
transformed the huge pile of parts into functional racing
automobiles.

The first car was completed and delivered to Dan Gurney at the AAR
shops in 2008.

Left: Philippe at the firing of the Offy
engine at Stewart Van Dyne shop. The engine started instantly and ran
sweetly for over one hour. No leaks, no overheating, looks
like everything is A-OK!

Right: Dan Gurney "get the keys" to his new car while
onlookers admire the final product.

In June 2010,
20 years after the difficult project had begun, the second car was completed. The
Indy 500 pole-winning Olsonite-Eagle
driven by Bobby Unser in 1972 was also sponsored by Ozzie Olson.
In this picture,
its late crew chief, Wayne Leary guides the Eagle to the front row before the start of that
race. Wayne was a slot car racing enthusiast and often came to witness the
racing taking place at Buena Park Raceway in California,
this until his last days.
Wayne died of complication from cancer in June 2010.

Wayne Leary hard at work in the cockpit in preparation
for the 1972 "Schaefer 500" at Pocono. Resting on the front wheel is a 1/10 scale model of the new Eagle, the body produced by
M.A.C. for the Associated RC1 radio controlled miniature racing car. Philippe painted it
like the full-size car for Car Model magazine.

By now, the car had shown to be the fastest in
preliminary tests at the speedway. Unser will claim pole and will drive away
from the field in the first part of the race, until the ignition distributor
rotor will fall apart, ending what was looking to be a possible win.

Nevertheless, the car will make such an impression
that orders will soon follow, with a total of 25 cars sold and 3 retained by
the works for their own use. Chassis 72-29
and 72-30 were never sold but retained, and their tubs were used to
build the two cars on this page.

The car was modified for 1973
with a new "flat-side" tub designed by Roman Slobodynskyj and improved
aerodynamics by McDonnell-Douglas engineer Bob Liebeck. Here at the
Indianapolis Motor Speedway, crew chief Wayne Leary is awaiting while Bobby Unser
is warming up the engine prior to testing. The eagle graphics were slightly
modified for 1973, as a "claw" was added to the design. Painted in
a hurry, lack of time
prevented two more colors from being applied.

Left: One of the few
surviving pieces of artwork shows the proposed 1973 car with the upgraded
"flat sides" tub, a new shorter nose with triangular front arms clearance
vents and proposed improved streamlining around and over the engine. This was
an effort to provide cleaner airflow to the rear wing.

Right: Jerry Grant with the new car at the 1973
Indy 500.

The added streamlining did not happen until much later, as engine man John Miller
was adamantly opposed to anything that would have enclosed the Offy engine
that could make it run warmer. In 1973, McLaren already had made
the move, the engine covered by a shroud that extended to the leading edge of
the wing.

Almost everything went right in 1974 as
Bobby Unser won enough races to earn the USAC crown, but the Indy 500 still
escaped the AAR machine, Bobby finishing in second place.
At the end of the year, Ozzie Olson ended his
long-time sponsorship as a recession hit the United States. It was very unfortunate
for him because under new sponsorship from Jorgensen Steel, it all came
together in 1975
and Bobby, after a fierce battle with perennial on-track nemesis Johnny
Rutherford in the works McLaren, won the race. When the rain fell after 350 miles, Bobby
was ahead and declared the winner. This gold belt buckle (left) was given to
the winning Eagle team members and was engraved with their name.
The 1972 and 1974 Eagles were a commercial
success for AAR, as besides the works cars, 3 chassis were sold in 1972, 22
more in 1973, and another 14 in 1974,
the Eagles dominating the Indy cars field.
The Eagle was the most influential Indy of the mid 1970s, racing for four straight years, winning the
"500" in 1973 in the hands of Gordon Johncock, and in 1975 in those of
Bobby Unser, finishing in second place in 1974.

Chassis number 29
is shown below in the process of completion in 2008:

Attention to detail and
build quality was impressive at AAR, as shown by the
aircraft-style rubber mounting of the dashboard so as to minimize engine vibrations. The tub has been polished,
so as to remove years of surface corrosion during storage. The
suspension has been nickel plated for the same reason. While the
original car had been entirely painted by hand, computer-cut colored
adhesive film was used to simplify the process.

Automobile dealer and collector Kirk F. White was one of
the Eagle sponsors in 1972. The graphics that were designed by Philippe in
late 1971 were faithfully reproduced onto the body panels. Characteristics
of the works cars were dual fuel side fillers and a Weismann 4-speed
transmission, the customers cars making do with the British-built Hewland "LG400". This
car is fitted with the American gearbox.

The level of
quality of the restoration is second to none. Most parts were new-old-stock
but others were reconditioned used works parts obtained from All American
Racers.
As for the car delivered to AAR, this one is fully functional and
can be run as vintage events. The engine has a history of its own, being the
one that won the 1972 "Phoenix 150", driven by Bobby Unser, according to engine builder John Miller's records that were saved
by Philippe.

Left: The cockpit shows some
of the instrumentation that
includes a manifold pressure
gauge for the turbocharger.
Seating is very narrow and
designed for tall drivers.

Right: the
side radiators were
mounted inside pods filtering
the airflow as well as providing
extra down force.

After arrival of the car at the Riverside International
Automobile Museum, the engine was prepared for being started and run so that
engine builder Stewart Van Dyne could check any issues or leaks.

The engine fired right up and everything worked as it
should. After the engine had reached operating temperature, it was pickled
for storage, using Marvel Mystery oil in the lines to preserve against
methanol damage during storage.

Above left, Ken Berg takes pictures of
the completed car. At left, Drake family members (Beatrice Drake and her
daughter) look at the finished
product that uses an engine originally manufactured by the late Dale Drake and
her late husband, John Drake.
An emotional reunion.

This postcard was issued by the Olsonite
Corporation in 1972 and represented the earlier design on the car's nose. The
decor had to be raised because of the need for a Goodyear sponsor decal.

In 1972, this was the fastest Indy car
money could buy,
and the fastest racing car on the planet. In 2010, it is a tribute to Dan
Gurney and the team of capable people he assembled to engineer, manufacture
and win races with this terrific machine.

The 1972 car had relatively simple wing arrangement. In
later years, more complex wings with dual elements and larger side plates
were successfully used, bringing a new era of high down force. On this car,
an original 1972 wing could not be located, so a later 1974 wing from the
Bobby Unser car was used. This has a Bob Liebeck developed "banana" profile as they were called,
to provide ultra-high down force at lower speeds.

The AAR Drake-Offy engine uses a Hilborn
full-time fuel injection that makes the adjusting of fuel mixture a
difficult proposition. Many such engines blew up in spectacular fashion if
the mixture was leaned too much in its midrange, especially when the
throttle was applied after deceleration for a turn. The turbo boost is
adjustable but not from the cockpit. There is no intercooler in these early
turbocharged engines and driving such a car required constant concentration
as there was a long lagging period between throttle application and actual
torque delivery, as the turbo spooled itself every time from low to maximum
RPM. The result was somewhat impressive when power reached the rear wheels.

As can be seen here, those Indy cars were huge machines.
The total weight is nearly 1700 lbs. While this was over 100 lbs above the
minimum weight per USAC rules, the car was very strong and extremely well
built by Phil Remington and his crew. Compared to the rather rough period British
built
McLaren or Lola Indy-car chassis, the Eagle is truly a piece of
jewelry. These were such good cars that they were used quite successfully
from 1972 through the early 1980s after the tubs were modified for more
modern aerodynamics, first by Bill Finley, then by many other mid-field
teams.
Because of these later modifications, original, unmolested chassis such as
this NOS example are rather rare today, the restoration of some requiring a
complete reconstruction of the center bulkhead and complete re-skinning.

This is pretty much the view of the car that most 1972
Indy car racers had of the Olsonite Eagle, that is until something went awry
on the car with the rotten racing luck Dan and his team encountered that
year. Nevertheless, the car made its mark by winning 3 races and setting 10
poles.